Often I have trouble deciding what to photograph. The inspiration just doesn’t come to me. A good idea trick I use to get those creative juices flowing is this: come up with a theme and shoot as many photos as you can that relate to it. I’ll give you an example:
Recently I was walking in my neighbourhood when I saw a boarded up old house. It had obviously been like this for many years and it gave me a theme for some photographs. Now the theme I took from this old place was dilapidation, ie. things slowly falling apart. But I could just as easily have chosen a theme of old houses, or empty houses, or boarded up houses.
So once I had picked a theme I needed to brainstorm as many ideas as I could that related to it:
* boarded up houses
* empty stores
* rusting car wrecks
* broken computers
* rotting fruit
Now I had a list of things to photograph, see how this works? It’s really just a tool to get your mind thinking about things differently. How about another example: dogs. How many things can you photograph that relate to dogs?
* someone walking their dog (d’uh!)
* dog running in the park
* a dog in someones yard
* a guard dog at a business
* the local police dog
* a dog bowl
* dog food
* the dogs leash hanging by the front door
* a dog house in the backyard
* pawprints on the beach
These lists can become really huge! But it’s a great way to come up with interesting new angles to look at things. These lists could really be about anything, you could do a set of themed photos about your partner or kids. Photos of them at home, work and play could make a great present for their next birthday or Christmas.
So how many themes can you think of? Start brainstorming now…
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